Equally dead half a century apart

On February 2, 1926, Alberta Handy, a 38-year-old Black woman, died of a botched abortion in Chicago. The perpetrator was never caught.

Fast-forward half a century.

Elizabeth Tsuji, a 21-year-old Cal State student, died on February 2, 1978, at Inglewood General Hospital, after a safe, legal saline abortion. Planned Parenthood had referred her to Inglewood after the abortion they'd performed on her the previous Veteran's Day failed to kill her baby.

Abortionist Morton Barke was somehow involved, although documents aren't clear what his role was in her death. Barke also worked at the unsavory San Vicente Hospital. He is known to have been a partner at Inglewood and to have been involved in the deaths of Yvonne Tanner and Lynette Wallace. His involvement might have been that he served in a supervisory role.

The other women who met their deaths at Inglewood include:

• Kathy Murphy
  
• Cora Lewis
  
• Belinda Byrd

For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice:



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